1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a benzoxazole derivative, and a light-emitting element, a light-emitting device and an electronic device each using the benzoxazole derivative.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, research and development of light-emitting elements using electroluminescence have been extensively conducted. In the basic structure of such a light-emitting element, a layer including a light-emitting substance is interposed between a pair of electrodes. By applying a voltage to this element, light emission can be obtained from the light-emitting substance.
Since this type of light-emitting element is a self-luminous type, it has advantages over a liquid crystal display in that visibility of a pixel is high and that no backlight is needed. Therefore, light-emitting elements are thought to be suitable as flat panel display elements. Further, such a light-emitting element also has advantages in that the element can be formed to be thin and lightweight and that response speed is very high.
Further, since this type of a light-emitting element can be formed to have a film shape, surface light emission can be easily obtained. This feature is difficult to realize with point light sources typified by a filament lamp and an LED or with linear light sources typified by a fluorescent light. Therefore, such light-emitting elements also have a high utility value as surface light source that can be applied to lighting apparatuses or the like.
Light-Emitting elements using electroluminescence are broadly classified according to whether they use an organic compound or an inorganic compound as a light-emitting substance. When an organic compound is used as a light-emitting substance, by application of a voltage to a light-emitting element, electrons and holes are injected into a layer including the light-emitting organic compound from a pair of electrodes, whereby a current flows. Then, carriers (i.e., electrons and holes) recombine to place the light-emitting organic compound into an excited state. The light-emitting organic compound returns to a ground state from the excited state, thereby emitting light.
Because of such a mechanism, the light-emitting element is called a current-excitation light-emitting element. Note that an excited state of an organic compound can be of two types: a singlet excited state and a triplet excited state, and luminescence from the singlet excited state (S*) is referred to as fluorescence, and luminescence from the triplet excited state (T*) is referred to as phosphorescence. Furthermore, it is thought that the ratio of S* to T* in a light-emitting element is statistically 1:3.
At room temperature, a compound that converts a singlet excited state into luminescence (hereinafter referred to as a fluorescent compound) exhibits only luminescence from a singlet excited state (fluorescence), not luminescence from a triplet excited state (phosphorescence). Therefore, the internal quantum efficiency (ratio of generated photons to injected carriers) of a light-emitting element using a fluorescent compound is thought to have a theoretical limit of 25% on the basis that S*:T*=1:3.
On the other hand, by using a compound that converts a triplet excited state into luminescence (hereinafter referred to as a phosphorescent compound), internal quantum efficiency can be improved from 75 to 100% theoretically. That is, emission efficiency can be three to four times as high as that of a fluorescent compound. From such a reason, in order to achieve a light-emitting element with high efficiency, a light-emitting element using a phosphorescent compound has been actively developed recently (e.g., see Non Patent Document 1).
When a light-emitting layer of a light-emitting element is formed using a phosphorescent compound as described above, in order to suppress concentration quenching of the phosphorescent compound or quenching due to triplet-triplet annihilation, the light-emitting layer is often formed so that the phosphorescent compound is dispersed in a matrix including another substance. In that case, a substance serving as a matrix is referred to as a host material, a substance that is dispersed in a matrix, such as a phosphorescent compound, is referred to as a guest material.
When a phosphorescent compound is used as a guest material, a host material is needed to have triplet excitation energy (an energy difference between a ground state and a triplet excited state) higher than the phosphorescent compound. It is known that CBP which is used as a host material in Non-Patent Document 1 has higher triplet excitation energy than a phosphorescent compound which exhibits emission of green to red light, and is widely used as a host material of the phosphorescent compound.
However, although CBP has high triplet excitation energy, it is poor in ability to receive holes or electrons; therefore, there is a problem in that driving voltage gets higher. Therefore, a substance that has high triplet excitation energy and also can easily accept or transport both holes and electrons (i.e. a bipolar substance) is required as a host material for a phosphorescent compound.
Furthermore, because singlet excitation energy (difference in energy between a ground state and a singlet excited state) is greater than triplet excitation energy, a material that has high triplet excitation energy will also have high singlet excitation energy. Consequently, a substance that has high triplet excitation energy is also useful in a light-emitting element formed using a fluorescent compound as a light-emitting substance.